If all else fails for Gareth Southgate while he invites new career offers on LinkedIn, there is the fallback option of a lifetime of work in easy-listening radio.

Few guests in the 82-year history of Radio 4’s flagship Desert Island Discs can have made life quite so effortless for the show’s host. The grandeur of a knighthood beckons for Southgate in eight days but, in the cosy company of Lauren Laverne, he was disarmingly self-effacing.

An enthusiasm for storytelling has not dimmed since he spent his days off at Crystal Palace working for free for the Croydon Advertiser. After expressing his delight to be on the show, he segued between lighthearted anecdote and bittersweet memory to tee up the next record choice with minimal prompting.

Music choices were pleasingly middle of the road for a man who could not quite carry England to the Promised Land but deftly negotiated his way through polarised issues during his eight years in charge. He picks a U2 track which highlights “we’ve got to find a way to get on and live together”. There were also jokes of him staying away from controversy because he was “a bit duller than the others”. He later burnished such an image by revealing he has now joined a school dads’ book club and become a “coffee snob”.

But there were moments in this 57-minute impossible-to-dislike depiction that betrayed Southgate is carrying wounds from the summer. His selection of the Adele heartbreak anthem Someone Like You – and his disclosure that he was playing it on repeat prior to announcing his resignation – gave fresh insight into his inner turmoil.

“I kept playing it towards the end of the last Euros because I knew I was going to be leaving,” he told Laverne. “I’d made my mind up that it was time for change on all sides and there were so many of the words within it that even if I hear it today, it relates to my relationship with England and their relationship to me and how I feel about it all … they’ve got to move on and you wish them the best.”

He then hinted at “regrets”, but added “they’re actually memories that were made”. Southgate’s media appearances have been minimal since he stepped down. He surprised many by resurfacing last month with a LinkedIn account, with his CV and an accompanying post announcing he was open to jobs outside management. Desert Island Discs was an opportunity to clarify why.

“I’ve been 37 years player and coach – I’m not against the next period of my life being something totally different,” was all he said. But with his inclusion in the New Year’s Honours next week, Southgate can continue to keep his cards close to his chest. He said on the show he is a natural introvert who might find life easier to adjust as a Castaway. Nevertheless, this was a confident display to underline he will have options if he does pursue plans to pursue a career switch away from the dugout.

Southgate’s selection

Bruce Hornsby & the Range – The Way It Is

Carpenters – Rainy Days and Mondays

Tears for Fears – Everybody Wants To Rule The World

The Waterboys – The Whole of the Moon

Mary J. Blige, U2 – One

Ed Sheeran – Shape of You (Stormzy Remix)

Adele – Someone Like You

Ludovico Einaudi – Experience